Musical hymn to a hidden language

''Secret Songs of Women'' at SPAC

Published 2:24 pm, Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Photo: Jan Regan

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The Changsha premiere of "Nu Shu" (Jan Regan Photography)

The Changsha premiere of "Nu Shu" (Jan Regan Photography)

Photo: Jan Regan

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A press conference was held in Changsha at Hunan TV the day before The Philadelphia Orchestra's performance of Tan Dun's Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women, Symphony for Microfilms, Harp, and Orchestra. Three of the women who speak the Nu Shu language and who appear in the films Tan Dun created to accompany Nu Shu joined Principal Harp Elizabeth Hainen during the event. Seated left is Allison Vulgamore, the Orchestra's president and chief executive officer; and standing left is composer Tan Dun. Changsha is in Hunan province, the birthplace of both the Nu Shu language and Tan Dun, and the inspiration for the composition. (Photo courtesy the Philadelphia Orchestra) less

A press conference was held in Changsha at Hunan TV the day before The Philadelphia Orchestra's performance of Tan Dun's Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women, Symphony for Microfilms, Harp, and Orchestra. Three of ... more

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Nu Shu language (Parnassus Productions)

Nu Shu language (Parnassus Productions)

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Nu Shu woman (Parnassus Productions)

Nu Shu woman (Parnassus Productions)

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Nu Shu women (Parnassus Productions)

Nu Shu women (Parnassus Productions)

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Nu Shu women (Parnassus Productions)

Nu Shu women (Parnassus Productions)

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"Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women" (Parnassus Productions)

"Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women" (Parnassus Productions)

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Tan Dun learning Nu Shu (Parnassus Productions)

Tan Dun learning Nu Shu (Parnassus Productions)

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Tan Dun and Nu Shu women (Parnassus Productions)

Tan Dun and Nu Shu women (Parnassus Productions)

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Musical hymn to a hidden language

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The harpist Elizabeth Hainen doesn't speak Mandarin. The women featured in Tan Dun's "Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women," an orchestral and cinematic portrait of an ancient feminine script and subculture, don't speak English.

But when Hainen and the Philadelphia Orchestra premiered the work in the Hunan Province capital of Changsha last October, she felt an immediate and powerful bond that took her by surprise. As harp soloist, she had seen the short films that Tan incorporated into the piece. Hainen had played along with them as she rehearsed, becoming deeply familiar with their stories, the Nu Shu script and its related sung traditions — which evolved centuries ago.

Over and over she watched, heard, studied: "On some level, I felt I knew them." Still, she was unprepared for the wallop of seeing the Nu Shu women onstage after the Changsha premiere. "I was emotional — and so moved by finally meeting them in person. ... They were gripping me, and hanging on to me. They wanted to just be with me." At a Hunan television appearance, one of the women "announced that I was now her adopted daughter from America. So that was incredibly touching."

"Secret Songs of Women" had its American premiere shortly thereafter in Philadelphia. Its SPAC debut is set for 8 p.m. Friday, with Hainen on harp and music director Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducting, in a program also featuring Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 1. The Tan piece reflects both the Changsha native's own heritage and the ethnographic interests that have lit and shaped much of his career.

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"Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women," with the Philadelphia Orchestra and harpist Elizabeth Hainen

His work on ''Nu Shu'' involved years of research in the province, where women developed their own script and vocal traditions apart from Mandarin and prevailing society in feudal China.

The significance of her role in preserving those traditions isn't lost on Hainen. "It's a huge honor, it's a huge responsibility, and I feel like it's a story that needs to be told. And what was just amazing is that we, as a western orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, was telling this story to many, many of our Chinese audience members who didn't know about it themselves. ... So it is a massive honor. And the more I play it, the more I realize how profound and compelling it is. And the impact that it makes on those that witness it is tremendous."

Working on ''Nu Shu'' "has taken me down a path I could never have predicted," said Hainen, who is spending her 20th summer at SPAC with the Philly. Between that milestone and the 10th anniversary of her Saratoga Harp Colony, which she directs on the campus of Skidmore College, "It's really kind of exciting. It's kind of the pinnacle of my career, I feel."

"Nu Shu" literally means "women's writing," said Cathy Silber, visiting assistant professor of Chinese at Skidmore College, who's finishing a book on the subject. Aside from the script itself, "It also has a very strong oral component to it. The texts were sort of sung or chanted aloud — so there's a melody."

Silber considers the notion of secrecy complicated — and wonders if these Hunan women's traditions, whether script or sewing, can be regarded as clandestine if the women took no interest in the broader, male-dominated culture. And if the men, in turn, took no interest in them. "The question to ask is, 'What does ''secret" mean to people who hadn't any desire to be included?' " she asked. "It's true that it was only for women, and it was true that men didn't know it, but they weren't exactly clamoring to be let in on this secret."

Some of the films in "Nu Shu: Secret Songs of Women" focus on day-to-day events. Some are rites of passage: a wedding, for instance, or leaving home for the first time. In Hainen's view, the intimacy and universality of the work crosses boundaries, but hits closest to home for women, prompting feelings of sisterhood and sympathy for a culture far removed from home.

"It speaks to everybody. It really is a piece of humanity," she said. "But it speaks to women ... And you think about what, perhaps, your mother — my mother — taught me."